Toolkit 03: HR- The Small Business HR Playbook

Stop making every HR decision from scratch. The Small Business HR Playbook is a practical, fillable workbook that walks small business owners through seven steps, about four days each, to build the policies, documentation, and rhythms your team can trust.

Inside, you'll build your handbook foundation with a core policy checklist, set clear time off and leave policies, write job descriptions that actually hold up at review time, build a performance review rhythm with a quarterly check in template, handle employee relations with a difficult conversation script and a documentation record, run a compliance audit across hiring, pay, workplace, and records, and turn all of it into an HR rhythm you actually keep.

Every step includes a short read, a tool you fill in on the spot, a Short On Time shortcut for busy weeks, a list of common mistakes to avoid, and a check in to mark real progress. Built for owners who'd rather build it once than fix it twice, this is the third toolkit in the Unified Linc series: People, Process, Growth.